Funny Findings About Brain

Science & Medicine - News to note

December 3, 2000

The brain may have a "funny bone," scientists reported Monday, a finding that may explain why some stroke victims lose their sense of humor. "A small part of the frontal lobes appears critical to our ability to recognize a joke," said Dean Shibata of the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Shibata and colleagues released a report that was based on the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging to map activity in the brains of 13 people exposed to humor in four different tests. The study said the brain may help explain why people who suffer a stoke involving the lower frontal lobes of the brain have alterations of personality, including loss of their sense of humor.

EVOLUTION AND PROMISCUITY

Promiscuity may have played a role in the evolution of the immune system. Charles L. Nunn of the University of Virginia and colleagues examined the immune systems of 41 species of primates with a wide range of sexual habits. Female Barbary macaque monkeys, for example, mate with as many as 10 males per day while in heat, whereas species such as the white-handed gibbon mate with one partner in their lifetimes. The researchers found that the most promiscuous primates have the highest levels of disease-fighting white blood cells. That suggests that immune systems evolved to protect animals from diseases they may be exposed to through mating. "The implication of our finding is that the risk of sexually transmitted disease is likely to be a major factor leading to systematic differences in the primate immune system," said Nunn. This puts the evolution of sexual behavior in close relation to the evolution of the immune system.

SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

In a 1958 movie, Steve McQueen saved humanity from The Blob by blasting it with cold until it shrank. Japanese scientists have now accomplished the same feat using lasers. A team led by Hiroaki Misawa, of the University of Tokushima, has found a way to make plastic gels shrink and then expand to their original shape again and again. The discovery could lead to new sensors or tiny "muscles" that flex the arms of futuristic robots, the scientists say. They studied "polymer gels" -- plastics pumped up with fluid that change shape easily because of a molecular balancing game between forces that act to shrink the material and those that act to expand it. Nudging this delicate balance one way or another can dramatically change the material's properties. Zapping the gel with a focused laser beam is a step forward in controlling the gel, the scientists said.

INSIGHT INTO GALAXY BIRTHS

A peek at a powerful nearby galaxy may give scientists new clues about how galaxies formed in the early universe. In a recent issue of the journal Science, researchers from Penn State University, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan reported on observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a satellite that orbits as high as 87,000 miles above Earth. The galaxy, Messier 82, or M82, is known as a starburst galaxy because it is undergoing a violent burst of star formation. Starburst galaxies produce high levels of infrared, radio and X-ray emissions. M82, the scientists discovered, has a core incredibly hot. Gas at the core measures 70 million degrees Fahrenheit. This hot environment drives a powerful wind that carries material into intergalactic space. Understanding this process helps scientists explain both galaxy formation and the mix of chemicals found in the space between stars and between galaxies.

HANDS-ON SCIENCE LEARNING

Can hands-on science experiments improve children's reading comprehension? A University of Maryland researcher thinks so, and he has received a National Science Foundation grant of $3.4 million to test his theory. Working with a small group of Prince George's County, Md., teachers and students from 1993 to 1997, John T. Gurthrie, an educational psychologist at the College Park campus, found that hands-on science activities made children more interested in reading for information about experiments they had conducted, and they had the background to understand what they were reading. These skills carried over to other kinds of reading. Now Gurthrie wants to test his theory on a larger scale. His five-year project will involve about 3,600 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in 16 Frederick County, Md., schools.